Fu Jingfan promotes sustainable tourism with Penghu as the brand, runs for election to repay a life-saving favor
At ten in the morning, reaching Fu Ching-fan by phone, this Green Party candidate for Penghu County councillor was volunteering at Penghu's Tri-Service General Hospital. It turns out that Fu Ching-fan once suffered from tongue cancer, and eight years ago, after his condition stabilised, he began serving other patients at the hospital. He said: "When I was ill, I received care from many people, so I hope to give back too." That illness set Fu Ching-fan, who had originally worked in the fruit import and export trade, on a completely different path in life.
Eleven years ago, Fu Ching-fan was diagnosed with stage four tongue cancer; doctors estimated he had only two years left to live, with a recurrence rate of 85%. With half his tongue removed, Fu Ching-fan moved his whole family back to his wife's hometown of Penghu. Besides receiving his family's devoted care, Penghu's clean environment, air and food all helped Fu Ching-fan recover steadily, and from the two years the doctors had given him, he has made it all the way to today. Born in Kaohsiung, Fu Ching-fan not only gives back to Penghu by volunteering at the hospital, but his resolve has also driven him to do much more.
In January 2009, the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to the gaming clause of the "Offshore Islands Development Act", and in September of that year a referendum was held in Penghu. Regardless of turnout, as long as more than half the votes were in favour, casinos could be opened in Penghu. Fu Ching-fan threw himself into the anti-gambling movement starting in 2008, working alongside Wu Shuang-tse and other members of Penghu's middle generation, from raising awareness of the issue and holding demonstrations to linking up civic groups; under pressure from both the county government and business conglomerates, Penghu's public opinion finally rejected the proposal to build a casino in the September 2009 referendum.
Building "Penghu" into a clean, pollution-free brand
A vision for local industry is one of Fu Ching-fan's key policy platforms in his run for Penghu County councillor. He said: "In the past, the biggest criticism of NGOs was that they only advocate. We now want to lead with our ideals, build the industry up, and we already have concrete accumulation and output, not just empty talk. But to achieve a complete industrial system through the power of NGOs alone might take five or ten years. If we can enter the public sector and drive things through policy, the results will come faster and be more complete."
On ecology and the environment, Fu Ching-fan's policy platforms include "de-cementing the sea walls" and "designating ecological protection zones". The "de-cementing the sea walls" part is because after breakwaters are built along the coastline, the flow of the sea and coastal sedimentation are both altered. Fu Ching-fan hopes that, through survey reports on sea currents and beach erosion, the removal of breakwaters can be assessed, returning the coast to its natural state.
"Designating ecological protection zones" means planning 5% of the coastline in each area as a protection zone. Within the protection zones, collecting and hunting are prohibited, and resident volunteer teams patrol them, serving as a gene pool and sanctuary for living things. He takes current sea urchin harvesting as an example: "The sea urchin harvest season is from June to September each year, but they are always all collected within a week of the season opening." If protection zones can be set aside to preserve living things, eco-tourism can also be developed, turning the fishing industry into a leisure industry and charging user fees to collect a fund for maintaining the coast, protecting the ecology while also increasing residents' income.
Opposing gambling is naturally among Fu Ching-fan's policy platforms too; among the candidates for Penghu County councillor, he is currently the only one who has explicitly listed opposition to gambling in his platform. Similar to the casino situation is the proposal to build the giant Mazu statue at Dacang. Fu Ching-fan has little regard for this old way of thinking that seeks to "attract crowds". He points out that the Penghu County government should instead integrate and maintain the existing temples and religious artefacts, rather than spending 550 million yuan--money that it is unclear where it would even come from--to build a giant statue on Dacang Island, which has little connection to the local context, especially since the crowds it attracts would also bring pollution to the small island.
On tourism, Fu Ching-fan proposes the policy platforms of "improving transport" and "developing local characteristics and community tourism". On transport, he believes boat services to the various islands should be increased, making it convenient for tourists to travel independently and allowing residents of each island to develop local specialty products. In addition, some sections of road in Penghu run along the mountains and the sea, and he believes sightseeing buses could be established so tourists can take in the scenery.
On local characteristics and community tourism, Fu Ching-fan proposes different diving themes. Besides ecological diving zones where tourists must be strictly controlled, he also points out that there are many shipwrecks below Magong Harbour; a shipwreck museum could be set up on land, and tourists could also be taken underwater to explore them in person. In his community tourism proposal, he hopes to organise local volunteers to serve as interpretive guides, introducing the culture and architecture within the community, and to set up small community exhibition rooms so that visiting tourists can gain a deeper understanding of the local culture.
◎ To learn more about the policy platforms of Green Party Penghu County councillor candidate Fu Ching-fan, visit the Green Party political agent "2014 Quite Good!" Fu Ching-fan page: http://green.democracy.tw/afu
Fu Ching-fan's Facebook page: https://zh-tw.facebook.com/chingfan.fu